Social Class And The Helping Professions

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the intersection of social class and the helping professions, including examinations of the role of social class in American culture, classism, social class and mental health, and the American Dream. It will be a valuable tool for practitioners in a variety of mental health professions, providing a clearer understanding of social class as it relates to themselves and their clients. The first section contains an introduction to the global, historical, and sociological aspects of class and an in-depth look at urban and rural poverty, the middle class, and the upper class and economic privilege. The reader will find not only an examination of these social constructs, but also an opportunity to examine their own experience with social class. The next section brings the reader into the world of their clients in more specific ways, examining the role social class plays in mental health and mental health counseling, in the family structure and in counseling families, and in the experiences people have throughout the educational process and in schools. Finally, the last section of the book discusses specific techniques and models to use in the reader’s clinical practice, including how to assess clients’ experiences of class and classism and how these experiences have shaped their worldview and view of the self. Case studies throughout demonstrate fair and accurate diagnosis, assessment, and treatment.

In this text author William Ming Liu presents theory and research on the impact of classism and social class on mental health. He provides an original framework—the Social Class Worldview Model—for exploring each person's individual and subjective life experiences. These experiences form a perspective that is unique to the individual. The author then helps the reader integrate this realization into the study of poverty, economic inequality, wealth, and the often overlooked implications of greed, materialism, and consumerism for a more complete understanding of social class and classism. Liu's original Social Class Worldview Model–Revised provides a theoretical framework for integrating each individual's reaction to social class and classism experiences and addressing that worldview within counseling and psychology work. Readers receive guidance in additional ways to act as advocates for their clients—regardless of affluence—through a study of privilege, social justice, empowerment, and competence.

First Published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This is a supplementary text that is intended for courses in multicultural counselling/prejudice. The book provides a thorough overview of mental health and social class and how social class and classism affect mental health and seeking treatment.

Written specifically for non-clinical undergraduate students, but also relevant to graduate studies in helping professions, Skills for Helping Professionals, by Anne M. Geroski focuses on helping students develop the skills they need to effectively initiate and maintain helping relationships. After exploring the literature identifying critical components of helping relationships and briefly reviewing developmental and helping theories, the text covers such topics as the helping process, self-awareness, and ethics in helping, and then focuses on specific helping skills such as listening and hearing, empathy, reflecting, paraphrasing, questioning, clarifying, exploring, and offering feedback, encouragement, and psycho-education. The final chapters focus on individuals in crisis and helping in groups.

Social class is a pervasive facet of all lives, regardless of one's own social class and status. One would think its ubiquity would make it necessary for all helping professionals to understand social class and discuss it in therapy and research. Yet social class and classism are one of the most confusing and difficult concepts to understand and integrate into research and counseling practice--mostly due to the relative lack of psychological theories, research, and quantitative data. Fulfiling this need, this handbook summarizes and synthesizes available research on social class and classism in counseling practice and research areas. The 32 chapters included offer up-to-date, fascinating, and provocative applications of social class and classism, as seasoned chapter authors provide an overview of theories related to social class and classism and its application toward research, education, training, and practice. Chapters include comprehensive coverage of: - lifespan issues related to social class, such as unique aspects of social class and classism in the lives of children, adolescents, and older adults - how social class is studied and empirically understood through research, assessment, and practice - implications of social class in career counseling, psychological assessment and diagnosis, and the therapy relationship - how social class is implicated in positive psychology, career and work psychology, and health psychology - social class and classism and its connection to whiteness, racism, sexual orientation, religion and spirituality, and social justice This book offers the first compendium of counseling related resources on social class and classism and will be a comprehensive, must-have reference for professionals and academics in counseling psychology and related fields for years to come.